So the government are wrong not to recognise travellers as an ethnic group

Jip

Yet more whinging about this. There's not a bloody ethnic group. And I highly resent the fact that they call me a settled person, I'm not a settled person, just a person who abides by the countrys laws and respect my fellow citizens.

And there's a great quote in this story, some guy from the Irish travellers movemnt blames the garda for not moving quick enough to prevent the riot in Mullingar. I suppose there's nothing new there, everyone in society but travellers themselves are responsible for their actions.

Government 'wrong not to recognise Travellers as ethnic group'

By Eimear Ni Bhraonain

Tuesday June 16 2009

A LEADING equality campaigner has condemned the Government's refusal to recognise the ethnic identity of Travellers.

The former chief executive of the Equality Authority, Niall Crowley, who resigned from his position in protest at budget cutbacks, said the ethnicity issue was central to inequalities experienced by the Traveller community.

"Travellers want to be recognised as an ethnic group because that is what Travellers are. It is as simple as that. It's not a matter of a gift from the Government, it's not a matter of choice by Travellers. It's just a matter of fact," said Mr Crowley in his address to the AGM of the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) at the Radisson Hotel in Athlone, Co Westmeath, yesterday.

Mr Crowley added: "Everybody thinks tolerance is a great thing in the Irish society. But it's quite a problem really, I tolerate things that I don't really like but I have to put up with it.

Contempt

"The problem with tolerance is I can tolerate somebody but I can still hold real contempt for them and I can still hold absolutely no understanding of them."

He told over 100 delegates attending the two-day conference that the Government's failure to recognise Travellers as an ethnic group contradicts all of the advice it has received.

ITM director Damien Peelo stated that the UN committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) found that the Irish Government's failure to recognise Travellers as an ethnic group may have serious implications.

"Such recognition would ensure that the rights and protections ethnic groups currently enjoy under international and regional human rights law, as well as EU law, would be applied to Travellers."

Meanwhile, the ITM yesterday claimed that a riot between feuding families could have been prevented if gardai had intervened more swiftly.

Julie Mongan, a member of the ITM, said she believes the 63 people charged in connection with a riot in Dalton Park, Mullingar, would not be before the courts if the conflict had have been resolved sooner.

"They (the gardai) should have acted quicker; if they had have acted quicker, it wouldn't have escalated as much," she said.

But gardai rejected that they allowed the long-running dispute between Traveller families to escalate, saying they went "above and beyond the call of duty" in dealing with the incident.

- Eimear Ni Bhraonain

0ubliette

So shes an equality campaigner, campaigning to get travellers classed as being different to people with houses?

Yeah, makes sense.

SEPT 23 1989

I thought there was a european study done years ago which found they were not an ethnic group

Nelson Muntz

So, what's the payoff if they get recognised an an ethnic group?

SEPT 23 1989

Nelson Muntz wrote: »

So, what's the payoff if they get recognised an an ethnic group?

they will have a good wash

WindSock

They have their own language & culture. Why shouldn't they?

Jaysoose

Maybe a term for them to be recognised as an ethnic group could be that they stop robbing everything that isnt bolted down and also to stop wrecking the place as part of a "family feud".

TheZohanS

WindSock wrote: »

They have their own language & culture. Why shouldn't they?

Isn't it more of a sub culture?

partyguinness

This whole "ethnic minority" crap stems from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and a court case in England a few years back.

This very silly Judge agreed that Travellers/Pikies etc are indeed a separate ethnic minority and thus are afforded special protection under the ECHR in UK law.

So the situation is that Travellers have better protection in NI than in the Republic as we do not recognise them as separate minority.

Thats the game this crowd are playing...if they are recognised as a separate ethnic minority they get all sorts of protection under the ECHR....i.e. milk the system some more....:mad:

Darragh29

Sounds to me like they are mainly Irish like the rest of us. Should we give people from Kerry, Cork or Tallaght/Ballymun special status because they have their own particular little dialect???

The traveller community are their own worst enemy, they want all of the rights they perceive they are entitled to but accept none of the responsibilities that go along with it. The demand free accommodation, turn their noses up at settled housing, all of which is provided to them for free at the taxpayers expense, and they still manage to destroy whatever resources are given to them.

I used to be open minded to travellers but experience has since taught me that they are a community of theives..

TobyZiegler

What exactly are the rights and protections that ethnic minorities get?

Cant see it making any difference to crime/ feuds etc. They are already guaranteed education etc under our constitution same as anyone else.

Nelson Muntz

Sounds like the holy grail of scams & probably the only one they don't already have on the go.

BTW, I am selling these lovely rugs.....

Jip

WindSock wrote: »

They have their own language & culture. Why shouldn't they?

So do scangers, should they be classed as an ethnic group, apart from being classified as such for ethnic cleansing.

connundrum

Jip wrote: »

So do scangers, should they be classed as an ethnic group, apart from being classified as such for ethnic cleansing.

I would support this motion.

partyguinness

Stealing, speaking jibberish, refusing to wash and fighting...are what some people class as "language & culture"...:rolleyes:

Nelson Muntz

partyguinness wrote: »

Stealing, speaking jibberish, refusing to wash and fighting...are what some people class as "language & culture"...:rolleyes:

Don't forget domestic violence, cruelty to animals & illegal dumping.

Morlar

Jip wrote: »

Government 'wrong not to recognise Travellers as ethnic group'

By Eimear Ni Bhraonain

Tuesday June 16 2009

A LEADING equality campaigner has condemned the Government's refusal to recognise the ethnic identity of Travellers.

The former chief executive of the Equality Authority, Niall Crowley

I would agree with this article here on this subject :


http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/leaving-was-easily-the-greatest-contribution-that-niall-crowley-could-have-made-to-this-state-1580463.html

By Kevin Myers

Friday December 19 2008

The resignation of Niall Crowley, Chief Commissar and Ideologue of the Equality Authority, shows that he is at least a man of principle: but then nobody who has watched (albeit, through trembling fingers) the growth of the Authority, from a fringe organisation of 10 years ago, to being one of the most politically powerful quangoes in Irish life -- oh, truly an Authority indeed -- would ever have thought he was driven by selfish or mercenary motives.

Throughout, he clearly was in pursuit of principled ideological goals; and when government cutbacks (long overdue) deprived him of the means of achieving those goals by governmental financial cutbacks, he resigned. Nothing became his public life more than the leaving of it, easily the greatest contribution he could have made to this State.

The Equality Authority was one of the most grisly and ruinous public bodies in a decade of a grisly and ruinous, state-driven political correctness. That his resignation was deplored, and his career celebrated, by the Secretary General of the National Union of Journalists -- which is supposedly free of political-agendas, ha ha ha -- was testament to his influence, and indeed, to the timid and abject bathos to which so much of journalism has been reduced. No-one has done so much to selflessly further the plaintive and melancholy causes of litigiousness, self-pity, and spurious egalitarianism as Niall Crowley.

One of my favourite Equality Authority cases goes back some three years. A Somali gentleman and Irish citizen named Mohamed Hassan went to Western Union offices in Dublin to collect £50 sterling sent to him from Britain. Western Union told him that under US law (Western Union being American) he would have to present a passport to claim his money, because his name resembled that of a suspect, and under FBI regulations, he would have to prove to the FBI's satisfaction that he was the good Mohamed Hassan, and not the bad one.

He complained to the Equality Authority, and it took up his case. An Equality Tribunal inspector ruled that Western Union was entitled to freeze the money under a European Council ruling, but not to check his name with the FBI in the US.

She ruled that Western Union had indirectly discriminated against him on religious grounds, and awarded him €4,000 in compensation. So, the simple act of checking his identity violated his rights: and of course, his "identity", in the great mysterious world of Ideological Egalitarianism, was defined by his name, which is clearly Islamic.

We have a global war which is being waged by extremists in almost every corner of the world -- but to check a potential terrorist's identity (but not to withhold his money) is apparently a violation of this innocent man's human rights. But does this mean that every time Western Union checks into the movement of money which might involve a terrorist recipient, and then causes the FBI to investigate, it is to be fined? And does this also mean that the only people who may NOT be investigated as suspects in Islamic terrorism are people with Islamic names? In which case, Mr Mohamed Atta, go to the front of the Western Union queue: $20m from a Mr Bin Laden awaits you there!

In the course of a decade, the Equality Authority's budget rose exponentially from €378,000 to €5.9m. It became the primary engine for state-sponsored whingeing, often enough frivolous, and against the State itself.

Within days of Niall Crowley's resignation, came the great triumphant harvest of his sowing. Thirty-seven cases were heard by the Equality Tribunal, and 35 of them -- mostly from Travellers, and at great investment of time and toil to Authority inspectors -- were dismissed. Two other cases were sustained.

One was by an African gentleman who alleged that a car showroom had refused to sell him a car. The showroom had since shut, and no-one was there to defend the case. He was awarded €500. (Who's going to pay it? Good question). Another complaint came from a medical student who said he suffered from attention-deficit disorder, for which condition his college had made no provision. He got €1,000.

There we have it in a demented nutshell of litigation. Thirty-seven allegations investigated, at whatever cost to the taxpayer, and brought before that parallel universe known as the Equality Tribunal. (Alas, we don't how many other complaints had by that time fallen by the wayside).

The Tribunal inspectorate brought all their magisterial wisdom to these cases, and duly dismissed 35 of them. In any other area of public life, such statistics would have caused heads to fall into baskets: but not in EA-land, where cost and outcome seem to be unconnected concepts. The net result was €1,500 awarded on the foot of two rather anaemic-looking cases, whose merits were probably enhanced by the stunning mediocrity of the competition.

Niall Crowley is gone; but his work and his inspiration live on in that unholy mess of PC pottage, the Equality Authority. And under government plans, the EA is soon to move to Clonmel. Would that be Clonmel, New Mexico, now? Excellent idea.

kmyers@independent.ie

thelordofcheese

Morlar wrote: »

I would agree with this article here on this subject :


http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/leaving-was-easily-the-greatest-contribution-that-niall-crowley-could-have-made-to-this-state-1580463.html

By Kevin Myers

Friday December 19 2008

The resignation of Niall Crowley, Chief Commissar and Ideologue of the Equality Authority, shows that he is at least a man of principle: but then nobody who has watched (albeit, through trembling fingers) the growth of the Authority, from a fringe organisation of 10 years ago, to being one of the most politically powerful quangoes in Irish life -- oh, truly an Authority indeed -- would ever have thought he was driven by selfish or mercenary motives.

Throughout, he clearly was in pursuit of principled ideological goals; and when government cutbacks (long overdue) deprived him of the means of achieving those goals by governmental financial cutbacks, he resigned. Nothing became his public life more than the leaving of it, easily the greatest contribution he could have made to this State.

The Equality Authority was one of the most grisly and ruinous public bodies in a decade of a grisly and ruinous, state-driven political correctness. That his resignation was deplored, and his career celebrated, by the Secretary General of the National Union of Journalists -- which is supposedly free of political-agendas, ha ha ha -- was testament to his influence, and indeed, to the timid and abject bathos to which so much of journalism has been reduced. No-one has done so much to selflessly further the plaintive and melancholy causes of litigiousness, self-pity, and spurious egalitarianism as Niall Crowley.

One of my favourite Equality Authority cases goes back some three years. A Somali gentleman and Irish citizen named Mohamed Hassan went to Western Union offices in Dublin to collect £50 sterling sent to him from Britain. Western Union told him that under US law (Western Union being American) he would have to present a passport to claim his money, because his name resembled that of a suspect, and under FBI regulations, he would have to prove to the FBI's satisfaction that he was the good Mohamed Hassan, and not the bad one.

He complained to the Equality Authority, and it took up his case. An Equality Tribunal inspector ruled that Western Union was entitled to freeze the money under a European Council ruling, but not to check his name with the FBI in the US.

She ruled that Western Union had indirectly discriminated against him on religious grounds, and awarded him €4,000 in compensation. So, the simple act of checking his identity violated his rights: and of course, his "identity", in the great mysterious world of Ideological Egalitarianism, was defined by his name, which is clearly Islamic.

We have a global war which is being waged by extremists in almost every corner of the world -- but to check a potential terrorist's identity (but not to withhold his money) is apparently a violation of this innocent man's human rights. But does this mean that every time Western Union checks into the movement of money which might involve a terrorist recipient, and then causes the FBI to investigate, it is to be fined? And does this also mean that the only people who may NOT be investigated as suspects in Islamic terrorism are people with Islamic names? In which case, Mr Mohamed Atta, go to the front of the Western Union queue: $20m from a Mr Bin Laden awaits you there!

In the course of a decade, the Equality Authority's budget rose exponentially from €378,000 to €5.9m. It became the primary engine for state-sponsored whingeing, often enough frivolous, and against the State itself.

Within days of Niall Crowley's resignation, came the great triumphant harvest of his sowing. Thirty-seven cases were heard by the Equality Tribunal, and 35 of them -- mostly from Travellers, and at great investment of time and toil to Authority inspectors -- were dismissed. Two other cases were sustained.

One was by an African gentleman who alleged that a car showroom had refused to sell him a car. The showroom had since shut, and no-one was there to defend the case. He was awarded €500. (Who's going to pay it? Good question). Another complaint came from a medical student who said he suffered from attention-deficit disorder, for which condition his college had made no provision. He got €1,000.

There we have it in a demented nutshell of litigation. Thirty-seven allegations investigated, at whatever cost to the taxpayer, and brought before that parallel universe known as the Equality Tribunal. (Alas, we don't how many other complaints had by that time fallen by the wayside).

The Tribunal inspectorate brought all their magisterial wisdom to these cases, and duly dismissed 35 of them. In any other area of public life, such statistics would have caused heads to fall into baskets: but not in EA-land, where cost and outcome seem to be unconnected concepts. The net result was €1,500 awarded on the foot of two rather anaemic-looking cases, whose merits were probably enhanced by the stunning mediocrity of the competition.

Niall Crowley is gone; but his work and his inspiration live on in that unholy mess of PC pottage, the Equality Authority. And under government plans, the EA is soon to move to Clonmel. Would that be Clonmel, New Mexico, now? Excellent idea.

kmyers@independent.ie

Oh look, kevin myers has something to say on this subject, what a fucking surprise.
And it's the same shit as before!
The most amazing thing is that people pay this cretin to fart out his opinions on command. It's like bill o'reily, but somehow with less class.

iregk

All I'll say on this matter is that constantly we hear of travellers saying "its only a handful that give us all a bad name" etc... in all my years I have never been disappointed by a traveller. For some reason despite it only being a select "few" causing the trouble, never has any single one failed to live up to the stereotype for me!

I'd have no problem if only they weren't above the law in their eyes and didn't destroy every place they go.

dr.bollocko

Rabble rabble rabble rabble.
Nowhere in the remit of AH does it say that it is OK to come in here and rant about travellers without fear of sanction. Take it to politics / humanities / ranting and raving.